Captivity and humanist art history : the case of Poedua

'Princess' Poedua was held hostage by Cook while anchored off Raiatea during his last visit to Tahiti in 1777. It was apparently during the period of Poedua's captivity that John Webber painted one of his pictures of her (London, National Maritime Museum). Examines the misrepresentation of Poedua's story, from Cook's journalists onwards, and argues that Webber's painted representation of her as demure, passive and sexually available, further distorts her story. ;